The 12 Apps of Christmas course is a free open online course that has run at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland in both 2014 and 2015. The 2014 iteration of this course was aimed specifically at instructors and went on to win the Mobile Learning Division of the International E-Learning Award (iELA), and come joint third-place at the eLearning Excellence Awards run as part of the 14th European Conference on eLearning. The 2015 iteration was aimed primarily at students of all ages undertaking further education, third level education, and/or post-graduate study, but also included additional supporting information for educators. This case study sets out our experiences of designing and delivering the 2015 iteration of this innovative and effective student and educator support.

Research methods in human resource management (2nd edition), by Valerie Anderson, London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2009, 385 pp., £41.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781843982272 Pub...

The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) technique is a well- established " key tool" [1] for risk assessment and management in the field of engineering that has been `borrowed' extensively in recent years by other areas such as the field of medicine, chemical process industries, and the automotive industry, where it has been utilised as a quality improvement tool. In a very structured way the FMEA enables a team of individuals to assess and manage risk by clarifying potential failures or problems with the product, service or process under review, highlighting the effects or consequences of those failures, and agreeing procedures to be put in place to either eliminate the occurrence of those effects or mitigate the severity of their consequences.In the absence of a standardised risk assessment strategy in the field of higher education (HE) and research, this paper details a study undertaken at a HE institute in Ireland that 'borrowed' the FMEA technique and modified it for use in the field of HE and research specifically, in order to evaluate its potential role and value for the field. Once modified in ways that supported the epistemological assumptions of the borrowing discipline, the technique was used to carry out a risk assessment of the strategies in place at the institute in question to implement its elearning initiative. Subsequently, how the research process itself ran, as well as the type and quality of the data the technique helped generate, were analysed in depth.The key finding of the study emerged as the high level of reflection that the modified FMEA technique encouraged unexpectedly amongst the participants. It provided them with a rare and invaluable opportunity to reflectively analyse the strategies in question, which led to significant outcomes for them. This in turn led to the design of the Failure Mode Effects Reflective Analysis (FMERA) qualitative research technique for the field of HE and research, which holds huge potential for the field in this era of great change and need for continuous quality improvement. This paper will introduce the technique and provide practical recommendations for its use.

Effective project management, change management and risk management are key to the successful implementation of elearning. Connected to risk is the notion of unintended consequences, and it is with the issues and concerns surrounding the borrowing of the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis method for a research study to elicit the unintended consequences of the processes and policies put in place at one higher education institute in Ireland to facilitate the roll out of elearning there, that this paper is concerned. The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that any action undertaken can result in desirable and undesirable, as well as anticipated and unanticipated outcomes that fall beyond those originally intended. There is no research method readily available to the education researcher that is designed specifically to elicit this type of information, however, the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) method, native to the field of engineering, is a systematic and disciplined method designed to highlight the unintended or unanticipated consequences of all identifiable aspects of a system, design, process or service, thereby making it possible for procedures to be put in place to counteract, eliminate or plan ahead for the occurrence of any identified consequences, ultimately leading to increased success and quality. There is no set pattern to ‘borrowing’, and it is a common practice amongst researchers. However, it does bring with it many challenges as the researcher struggles to understand that which they wish to borrow in its traditional context in order to maintain its integrity as they adapt it and render it useful for an alternative context. This is not an impossible task, but one that requires a great deal of epistemological reflexivity on behalf of the researcher as they prepare for and execute the process. This paper will discuss issues surrounding ‘borrowing’ in general before going on to describe specifically the practical issues and concerns that arose when modifying the FMEA for use in the educational context.

This paper will describe the development of Serious Gordon, an interactive digital game developed to tech the basics of kitchen food safety to workers in industries dealing with food. The motivations driving the development of the game will be described as will the development process itself. An initial evaluation of the game, from both a technical and pedagogical point of view, will be presented as will conclusions on the viability of using a commercial game engine for the purpose of developing educational games.